Justification wafer-thin for federal meals in churches

FFRF to USDA: Stop serving children religion for lunch

August 13, 2013

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to adopt more safeguards to separate religion from a free summer lunch program.

The state/church watchdog, representing more than 20,000 members nationwide, called on Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to bring the Summer Food Service Program into compliance with executive directives that protect aid recipients from proselytizing.

FFRF lauded the program’s goal of feeding children, but noted the program is another case where “religion gets the credit and taxpayers get the bill.”

The federally funded food service and the organization’s religious activities are frequently combined, making it difficult for a family to opt out of religious propaganda if they want children to receive the free lunches. The program encourages providers, including churches, to accompany such meals with “educational, enrichment and recreational activities.”

The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service even gives as an example “faith-based organizations or churches that offer religious study day camp sessions.” Current USDA regulations and program materials don’t explicitly prohibit religious discrimination, and fail to mandate safeguards to keep religious activities separate from meals.

“Impressionable children are receiving federally funded meals in the same location as they receive religious instruction,” FFRF noted. “Churches should not be locations for children to receive free meals at public expense any more than they should be where low-income families must pick up SNAP EBT cards or college students sign up for federal loans,” Elliott added.

The USDA has also failed to give incentives to secular sites, much less to give preference to public schools, the ideal location for free lunch programs for young children.

An executive order specifies that religious activities be kept clearly separate from lunches provided using federal funding, but FFRF noted there is no monitoring required.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity, is the nation's largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics), and has been working since 1978 to keep religion and government separate.